Saturday 15 July 2023
St Bonaventure
Genesis 49:29-33; 50:15-26. Turn to the Lord in your need and you will live – Psalm 104(105):1-4, 6-7. Matthew 10:24-38.
God has turned the evil you planned into good
Perspective is a wonderful thing. We can look back at times in our lives and see that while plans and hopes we held at that time had not eventuated, we had not been short-changed. Sometimes what occurred had turned out better or at least of equal value to the original hopes. Of course, it might take a change of attitude on our behalf or an ability to forgive before reaching that hopeful perspective. When Joseph’s brothers were afraid Joseph would treat them as enemies for first conspiring to kill him but then selling him as a slave, Joseph answers that ‘The evil you planned to do me has by God’s design been turned to good, that he might bring about, as indeed he has, the deliverance of a numerous people’ (First reading). Joseph was able to see and appreciate that while his life had not been easy, God had been present throughout. The omnipresence of God in our lives is a theme picked up in the Gospel – ‘not one [sparrow] falls to the ground without your Father knowing . . . you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows’.
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